Researchers honored by the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)

Riyad Shahjahan, associate professor of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE), was elected to the CIES Board of Directors for a three-year term, beginning after the 2018 conference. The Board of Directors helps lead the organization’s mission to “foster cross-cultural understanding, scholarship, academic achievement and societal development” through research. In this role, he joins Associate Professor Amita Chudgar, who currently serves on the board.

Shahjahan will also be awarded the Best Article award by the CIES Higher Education special interest group. Co-written with Clara Morgan from United Arab Emirates University, the 2016 article, “Global Competition, Coloniality and the Geopolitics of Knowledge in Higher Education,” was selected as the top article from a CIES committee.

In their award-winning research, Shahjahan and Morgan focus on how global higher education spaces are influenced by and tied to coloniality and competition. They analyze contemporary examples of how and why many countries, faculty, and students participate in the global competition across higher education and raise questions on how these factors stifle creating a more inclusive environment for all.

In addition, the CIES Board of Directors recently awarded editorship of Comparative Education Review (CER) to scholars at several universities, including MSU. Chudgar and Associate Professor Dongbin Kim will represent the university. Chudgar has been working with CER for the past few years; in spring 2018, Kim will join her as she begins the five-year term.

Considered the flagship publication in the field, the journal will be helmed by a team from the University of Massachusetts (both the Amherst and Boston campuses) and MSU, with additional co-editors from the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Bath.